Problems with Ultimate Collection [Digital] and Windows 10

[Witch_Marisa]

I updated from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and am finding a number of games are not working anymore.

C&C Red Alert 2 (Both original and Yuri's Revenge)
C&C Generals Zero Hour

The thing which is really confusing is that they don't even crash. 

I launch and choose and the game thing just vanishes.  I check in the Task Manager and the games are just sitting there doing nothing.  Like it's failing too properly boot. But C&C Generals (regular)  is running perfectly fine. 

C&C TIberium Dawn DOES hard crash on launch giving an error message

Any idea what I need to do to fix these games?

Tiberium Sun and Red Alert 1 work perfectly fine oddly enough

[Nyerguds · Accepted solution]

@Witch_Marisa

Welp, I didn't do it. Looks like someone jumped the gun there.

As for the C&C1 issue, I know that sometimes happens if incorrect compatibility modes are set. Try changing it in the properties of C&C95.exe and see if any of the other modes give better results.

Do note that no matter what, the game needs to be run in elevated rights mode, or it won't be able to write in its own game folder, since you installed it under "Program files". You can enable the elevated mode in the compatibility settings of C&C95.exe, either by applying Win95 or Win98 compatibility mode, or by specifically setting it to run as administrator, but do note that the specific option might in fact act differently; I've seen systems where the "run as admin" option actually made things worse, despite the fact the Win95 compatibility mode also causes the rights elevation prompt. No clue why; Windows weirdness.

You can also try fiddling with the resolution and graphics settings in the CCConfig tool and see if any of these settings make a difference, but do note that the tool automatically applies optimal compatibility mode settings depending on the OS when saving, so if those don't actually work for you, you will need to re-apply them after using CCConfig.

[Nyerguds]

@Witch_Marisa

Command & Conquer 1, Red Alert 1 and Tiberian Sun have all been upgraded with community-created unofficial patches that fix a lot of their bugs and compatibility problems. For Red Alert 2 there's a more general patch that solves a lot of its graphics problems. You can find them here:

Command & Conquer 1:

• Nyerguds' C&C95 v1.06c revision 3 patch (which also adds bonus missions originally exclusive to the Playstation and Nintendo 64 versions of the game)

Red Alert 1:

• Funkyfr3sh's automatic Red Alert 1 patcher/installer (The thread also has briefing videos for the expansion missions, converted from the Playstation version of the game)
• Nyerguds' main.mix cleanup for TFD/TUC (Not really needed, but cleans up about a gigabyte of unnecessary files in the RA1 folder. Unpack in the game folder, run "patch_main.bat", let it finish, and then delete the files you extracted.)

Tiberian Sun:

• Funkyfr3sh's Tiberian Sun patch

Red Alert 2:

• The graphics system patch DDWrapper is known to solve a multitude of graphics problems, including the "black screen" issue.
  Download the zip file and extract "ddraw.dll" and "aqrit.cfg" into your game folder. Then, open the configuration file "aqrit.cfg" in Notepad, change the "ForceDirectDrawEmulation" option to 1, save the file, and try running the game again.
• If you still have problems with RA2 even after this, I advise installing the CnCNet installer for RA2/YR. It comes with a bunch of automatic fixes, and has a configuration tool which offers more choices in graphics fixes than just DDWrapper, so if one doesn't work you can just try if some of the other options do the trick.

Generals:

One of the most common causes of Generals failing is that the system is lacking the old DirectX components.

• Download the DirectX Redistributables package from June 2010. Be sure to uncheck any other junk they want to add to it. It should be a file called "directx_Jun2010_redist.exe".
• Run the downloaded file. It'll ask for a folder to unpack in. Make a new folder somewhere on your disk and unpack it there. It doesn't matter where you unpack it; it can be deleted afterwards anyway.
• Go to the folder where you told it to extract.
• Find "DXSETUP.exe", and run that to install the missing components.
• After the installation finished, delete the folder you unpacked everything in.

Besides that, check if the game's settings folder is present in your My Documents folder. There are some guides in the sticky threads here that can guide you through that.

The issue of the game "just sitting" in the task manager sounds like the old Origin In Game problem, but I thought they fixed that. But, to be sure, open the game's properties in the Origin client, and make sure to disable using the "Origin In Game" feature;I don't think it works for any of the C&C games. Note that if the option is greyed out, this means you tried to launch the game, and due to the malfunction, Origin thinks it's still running. To fix that, either kill the game launcher in the Task Manager, or just restart your computer.

[Witch_Marisa]

Please remove the "SOLVED" message.

There are sections not working still

Tibdawn: Did fresh install and reinstalled the patch. Same Error as before.

Red Alert 1 and Tiberium Sun are working fine so no need to change although I'll look at the patcher/installer (I already salvaged from CD the missing .auds that was a bug in the hard release)

Red Alert 2: Full uninstall gave black screen and attempting to fix. DDWrapper fixed it.

Generals: Fixed with a full removal so might have been configuration breaking I don't know (still not clue why it broke for Zero Hour and not both of them)

[Nyerguds · Accepted solution]

@Witch_Marisa

Welp, I didn't do it. Looks like someone jumped the gun there.

As for the C&C1 issue, I know that sometimes happens if incorrect compatibility modes are set. Try changing it in the properties of C&C95.exe and see if any of the other modes give better results.

Do note that no matter what, the game needs to be run in elevated rights mode, or it won't be able to write in its own game folder, since you installed it under "Program files". You can enable the elevated mode in the compatibility settings of C&C95.exe, either by applying Win95 or Win98 compatibility mode, or by specifically setting it to run as administrator, but do note that the specific option might in fact act differently; I've seen systems where the "run as admin" option actually made things worse, despite the fact the Win95 compatibility mode also causes the rights elevation prompt. No clue why; Windows weirdness.

You can also try fiddling with the resolution and graphics settings in the CCConfig tool and see if any of these settings make a difference, but do note that the tool automatically applies optimal compatibility mode settings depending on the OS when saving, so if those don't actually work for you, you will need to re-apply them after using CCConfig.

[Witch_Marisa]

Tried running it as admin no luck.

Edit: For some reason it picked up Windows 95 Compatibility mode on the executable. I don't know if it's lingering from the previous install as I did do an uninstall but my saves are there so who knows.

But it's working now.  I really don't get what's happening or why it did that.